You start your second sentence, and someone else is already talking. Many women know that moment, and for a long time assumed it said something about them, as an individual. The research tells a different story. What the research shows 📊 Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz reviewed 43 studies on interruptions in conversations. Men interrupted more than women. Overall the difference was small, but it was larger for interruptions that cut a speaker off to take over the conversation, in groups of three or more, and in real life compared with the lab (Anderson and Leaper, 1998). 📊 Across more than 24,000 US congressional committee hearings from 1994 to 2018, women in Senate committees were about 10% more likely to be interrupted, and more than twice as likely when women's issues were discussed (Miller and Sutherland, 2022). 📊 An analysis of more than 95,000 interruptions in nine Australian parliaments between 1998 and 2025 found that interruptions overall decreased as more women became members (Australian Journal of Political Science, 2026). 📊 In Ecuador's legislature (1988 to 2018), women were interrupted less often, but each interruption silenced them more, so they limited their own speaking time (Vallejo Vera and Gómez Vidal, 2022). 📊 In recorded multi-person meetings analysed at the University of Amsterdam, women were interrupted more often, and men interrupted women more often than other men, mostly by talking over them (Van Eecke and Fernández, 2016). This pattern turns up in different countries, professions and decades. One study even found that both men and women interrupted women more than they interrupted men. These are expectations all of us have absorbed, so nobody has to play the villain. Most of this research comes from Europe and North America, with Ecuador as one exception. Stories from other places matter, so bring yours. It is the room In experiments on group decisions, women had much less voice and authority in mixed groups, until the group changed. With a unanimity rule when few women were present, or a majority rule when many women were present, the gap disappeared (Karpowitz, Mendelberg and Shaker, 2012). Same women, different room, different result.

What makes life delicious for you? Or what would make it so? Embodying your (feminist) values might make your more aware of your senses. It is a topic that is easily lived only in the head. But what if you try to build sensory experiences that relate to or even enforce your values? For me, important values are autonomy and creativity. In a sensory way, I love to decide on the spot on what to cook with the ingredients we have in the fridge, and then guzzle it up. Auditively, I'm more discerning. I love to listen to classical music, but I do not like to turn the sound on while scrolling throug IG stories. My ears, my choice. Subtitles are more inclusive anyway. How does this work for you? How are your values reflected in your sensory life, and what makes it delicious?

The thread this time: representation is not symbolic. Who women see at work shapes whether they apply, whether they stay, and what they earn. 1. Women apply where they see women Emory University psychologists found that women were more likely to apply for a job when they believed more women worked there, even when the ad asked for abilities stereotyped as male. Representation drives recruitment, not just optics. Source: https://www.hrdive.com/news/gender-representation-job-choices-women/830878/ 2. Representation keeps women in, too A Washington State Women's Commission report on nearly 40,000 apprenticeship records (2022-2025) found that in construction trades where women are nearly absent, they drop out more and finish less. Where women are better represented, the pattern changes, and in some trades women complete at higher rates than men. Source: https://wswc.wa.gov/news/women-in-skilled-trades/ 3. The US pay gap narrowed, but not for everyone New Census data: women working full-time earned 83.9 cents per man's dollar in 2025, up from 80.6 cents. But the gap widened for Black women, and Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows a smaller improvement. One good year is not yet a trend. Sources: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2026/09/17/new-census-data-shows-the-gender-pay-gap-narrowed-but-other-data-disagrees-whos-right/ and https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/gender-wage-gap-improved-2025-224428528.html 4. Europe's pay transparency rules: still a patchwork The EU deadline was 7 June 2026, yet most countries are still catching up. Greece's main obligations start 1 November; Hungary plans to adopt its law this month; the Netherlands and Denmark aim for January 2027. Salary ranges for applicants and pay gap reporting are coming.